a hobbyist's dilemma

[John Salerno]

John Salerno wrote:

> Actually, PyGame *is* something I am interested in experimenting with. I 
> definitely want to use it, but I also want to try some stuff with the 
> basics too, just so I don't immediately get into the complicated stuff 
> without working with the usual things first, like lists and 
> dictionaries, etc.

Funny...I was just reading the docs for PyGame and wxPython, and they 
said this, respectively:
----------------------------------
"The most important thing is to feel confident using python. Learning 
something as potentially complicated as graphics programming will be a 
real chore if you're also unfamiliar with the language you're using. 
Write a few sizable non-graphical programs in python - parse some text 
files, write a guessing game or a journal-entry program or something. 
Get comfortable with string and list manipulation - know how to split, 
slice and combine strings and lists." -- PyGame
-------------------------------------------

"First of all, if you are new to Python, and especially if you are new 
to programming in general, it makes the most sense to learn Python 
itself first, without any GUI stuff. This can be frustrating if your 
goal is to write GUI programs, and particularly if you have experience 
with an environment like Visual Basic in which GUI programming is 
integrated into the environment. It is worth it, however, to take some 
time to learn about Python. Python is a very powerful language capable 
of doing many things both with and without GUIs.

Without first understanding topics such as functions, modules, and 
classes, adding wxPython to the mix will only increase the confusion." 
-- wx Python

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So yeah, I want to make sure I get all the other stuff under my belt in 
a useful way before moving on to more complicated stuff. :)